Is a law degree only about money and stereotypes? (Frances Coleman column)

Will she advertise on local TV, looking directly into the camera while promising to “personally return your call”?

Email Frances Coleman at frances@francescoleman.com.

You think you’re ready for this weekend, even though her graduation from law school means your daughter is really, truly gone from the nest. “Home” is where she lives now; it is no longer where she grew up with you, her father and her brother plus assorted cats, dogs, chickens and horses.

You know your wallet is ready for this weekend. Yes, she has paid for her seven years of postsecondary education with scholarships and loans, but still, you have been spent the past 20 years shelling out money for everything from crayons and uniforms to tuition, band instruments, cars and apartments.

As soon as her brother graduates next year from the same law school, you and your husband may be able to do some of the things you’ve always talked about doing -- like traveling -- before you get too old and creaky.

As she tries on the funky flat cap that law school graduates wear, you can’t help but wonder what kind of attorney she’ll be. Not what specialty she’ll embrace, but how her upbringing, character and moral compass will mesh with her education and aspirations to mold a young professional.

Will she advertise on local TV, looking directly into the camera while promising to “personally return your call”? With her striking good looks and the poise honed by years of music auditions and performances, she’d be a natural at it.

If the ability to cut memorable commercials doesn’t have much to do with the ability to be a good lawyer, well, so what? A girl’s got student loans to repay, and she can’t do that if she doesn’t have clients.

Or maybe she’ll be one of those lawyers who puts in 60 and 70 hours a week in a big law firm where the work is dry but the money’s good. The corporate world needs big law firms – and again, there are those student loans, not to mention the thirst for a new car and a decent place to live.

Perhaps she’ll be drawn to the more interesting but sometimes sleazy world of criminal law. There’s a good living to be made there, too, if she doesn’t mind dealing with a lot of low-life folks, many of whom are guilty -- which means she’ll spend much of her time cutting deals with prosecutors.

Will she live up to all the stereotypes and jokes about lawyers? Everybody knows them: Lawyers are vicious, greedy, cold-hearted cads whose No. 1 goal is to squeeze money out of their clients.

Truth is, they do demand money -- and generally up front. Law offices have to pay attorneys and their staffs, plus the rent and utilities, and they can’t do that if the lawyers don’t bring in revenue. She will learn all about money – how to bill for it, collect it and be accountable for it to her clients, the court system and the IRS – or she will not succeed.

You assume she will succeed, of course. She is your child, and you know her strengths. If you are a little apprehensive about how she’ll adjust to the demanding profession she’s entering, and a little fearful that she’ll become jaded, you can always reflect on the time she held a summer job at a public defender’s office outside of New Orleans.

Remember when she called you after her first trial, in which she assisted the team of lawyers in defending an indigent man charged with aggravated rape?

“We got a verdict,” she said dejectedly. “Guilty.”

“Oh,” you said, not knowing what else to say. Then you added: “So, was he guilty?”

“Hell, yeah,” she responded. “But we tried so hard, even though we didn’t have much to work with.”

“Well,” you replied, trying to be encouraging, “you’re doing the Lord’s work.”

“I guess so,” she said. And then, after a few seconds, she added: “But it’s not just the Lord’s work, Mama. It’s also the Constitution’s work.”

You knew then that this was the kind of person the legal profession needs – just as you know now that she and you and, yes, your wallet all will be fine.

Frances Coleman is a freelance writer and columnist whose daughter, Sarah, graduates this weekend from Loyola University School of Law. Email Coleman at frances@francescoleman.com, “like” her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/prfrances and visit her website at www.francescoleman.com.

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